Despite Netflix’s attempt to build and solidify its portfolio of games, data has come to light showing that about 99 per cent of its subscribers have not even tried out the games.
According to data by CNBC from app tracking group Apptopia, Netflix’s games average 1.7 million users per day, which is a tiny fraction of the streaming giant’s staggering 221 million subscribers worldwide.
Apptopia’s data revealed that Netflix’s games have been downloaded 23.3 million times ever since Netflix announced a push into mobile gaming in November last year. The streaming giant kicked off with merely give games, it has now expanded to more than two dozen titles over the past couple of months.
Big name franchises
Some of its most popular games include Stranger Things, a game based on the Exploding Kittens card game, the League of Legends spinoff Hextech Mayhem, and the strategy title Into the Breach. Netflix has also announced a Queens Gambit game as well as a Money Heist game.
The streaming service aims to double its current offering of games to 50 titles by the end of this year and has acquired three indie game studios to achieve this. Previous reports show that Netflix’s game downloads gradually grew after new games were added.
In January, Apptopia recorded a total of 8 million game downloads while data from Sensor Tower, an analytics firm showed an overall downloads of 13 million in June.
Netflix subscribers on Android devices can access and download the games for free from either the Netflix app or Google Play Store. iOS users, however, have to download the games directly from the App Store.
A strategy to keep subscribers
The news that their gaming exploits aren’t hitting the highs they’d like comes on the back of the news that Netflix has lost over 1.3 million subscribers for the first time in over a decade. It’s thought that cost-cutting during the global recession and increased competition from streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime, Hulu and Disney+ are to blame.
Netflix’s collection of games could play a vital role as the company hopes to make a major comeback from its subscriber loss by turning many of its acclaimed series into games. However, for this strategy to work, it’s clear that Netfix is going to have to make a better job of pointing their remaining subscribers at them.
Jack Brassell is a freelance journalist and aspiring novelist. Jack is a self-proclaimed nerd with a lifelong passion for storytelling. As an author, Jack writes mostly horror and young adult fantasy. Also an avid gamer, she works as the lead news editor at Hardcore Droid. When she isn't writing or playing games, she can often be found binge-watching Parks & Rec or The Office, proudly considering herself to be a cross between Leslie Knope and Pam Beasley.
